virtualbox.org

I run Ubuntu 12.04 (64bit) as a host and Windows 7 (64bit) as guest. I have learned that VLC and other players crash when 3D acceleration is enabled. This only occurs with video, regardless of the format (avi, mpeg, mkv, mp4). Audio still plays fine, but when you try to start a video VLC player crashes instantly. I reinstalled Windows without 2D and 3D acceleration and took it step for step to pinpoint the culprit.

Step 1:
After basic installation:
60GB VDI
4GB RAM
128mb video (no 2D/3D acceleration)
PIIX3
IO APIC ENABLED
PAE/NX ENABLED
VT-x/AMD-V ENABLED
NESTING PAGING ENABLED
NAT (NETWORK SETTING)

Video players work fine.

Step 2:
Installed Vboxguestadditions. (except for the experimental 3D acceleration support)

Video players work fine

Step 3:
Installed service pack 1, all updates and all my software

Video players still work fine.

Step 4:
Enable 2D acceleration in VBOX Settings.

Video players still work fine.

Step 5:
Booted Windows in safe mode and installed experimental 3D support from the vboxguestadditions.iso
Shut down virtual machine and enabled 3D acceleration in VBOX settings.

VLC player crashes instantly on each attempt to play a video file.
Windows media player makes windows crash on each attempt to play a video file.

Only solution is to uninstall 3D support (in safe mode) and deselect 3D acceleration in VBOX settings.
Hope this can help someone who experiences trouble with VLC and other media players in VBOX.

You are coming accross 2 issues here
1. 3D Acceleration is experimental in Virtualbox. This means that any application using it can crash or not perform properly.
2. VLC actually use 3D acceleration by defaul if available. This can be changed in the settings.

Another suggestion is to stop installing in safe mode and instead install the wddm drivers.

@noteirak
Thanks for the tip I had no idea that VLC uses 3D acceleration by default when available.
Will see if VLC remains stable when 3D acceleration is checked in VBOX settings, but manually turned of in VLC.

@PerryG
Thanks for the tip! I have only tried basic Direct3D support up until now. Perhaps the WDDM driver will solve the problem.

Will let you guys know as soon I have tested the above mentioned configurations.

Thanks for the information here. In addition I've found that crashes & lockups of the whole VM and virtualbox when using OpenCV from Python on a Ubuntu VM can also be fixed by turning 3D support off.

The above information is 7 years old, VirtualBox now has a completely new graphics controller (VBoxSVGA). Locking this topic.